God calls us to change. This daily devotional looks at our old selves and our new selves in Christ.
We don’t like change. We are very content to remain in our comfort zones for the rest of our born days.
But God doesn’t want that.
I was in a church business meeting once when the lady who ran the church stated they didn’t like change. My comment was, “Christianity is all about change.”
Yes, God comes to us and calls us where we are. “But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5: 8 CSB).
The thing is, God doesn’t leave us that way. God wants to remove the sin that is within us.
God wants us to become new creations. That will make us more like Him. We will have His character.
The Old, Flawed Us
“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness …” (Gen. 1: 26 ESV)
“When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth” (Gen. 5: 3 ESV).
God always knew that mankind was going to disobey Him and let sin into the world. He had the Plan of Salvation ready to go before He created the universe.
In other words, God created us anyway. With crucifixion, death, and resurrection all in place to counteract the consequences of sin, He created us anyway.
Why would God create a world that was flawed? That is not permanent?
We could argue that the world God created was perfect and permanent until Adam and Eve committed the original sin. He created us as we were to be — and will be again.
God had given mankind just one restriction. “… You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gen. 2: 16-17).
Satan convinced Eve to not believe that there was anything deadly about the tree. On the other hand, he pointed out what was appealing to it. We would be like God.
What Satan was really trying to do was to get Eve to disobey God. He succeeded.
Satan said bite. Eve bit, and Adam bit.
Because Adam and Eve chose to sin, mankind has a sinful nature. We are all made in Adam’s image (Gen. 5: 3).
That isn’t the only way we have sinned. We have disobeyed God. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3: 23 CSB).
But God created it so that sin would be temporary. His new Heaven and earth — and a new Jerusalem — will be permanent. It will be eternal.
As soon as Adam and Eve committed the original sin, God said Jesus was coming to be our Savior. “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen. 3: 15 CSB).
God was going to use His power to fix what was destroyed by the original sin.
Being in Christ
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!” (II Cor. 5: 17 CSB)
Being a creature of God isn’t enough to make us children of God (Jn. 1: 12). Being made in His image isn’t enough, either.
A key to understanding what being a new creation is has to do with understanding what it means to be “in Christ.” It may look daunting at first.
It really isn’t.
No, Jesus is no longer a physical person. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be in Him and He in us.
Pastor Steve is in my heart, and I am in his. We are physical beings, but our love for each other is in us.
The same is with Jesus, except He is now a spiritual being. We know that He is in our hearts.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1: 1 ESV).
“I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119: 11 ESV).
Jesus is the Word. The gospel — in fact all of Scriptures — is about Him. We hide it in our hearts. Jesus is in our hearts.
We have to let Jesus into our hearts so that salvation can occur.
Being made children of God occurs through salvation, regeneration, and adoption. In order to become children of God, we have to believe in Jesus – be in Christ.
To me, being in Christ is synonymous with abiding in Christ. I guess, though, it just depends on from whose perspective we are looking at it.
In Christ has the slant that He is within us.
Abiding in Christ has more of a connotation that we are in Him.
Either way, the focus should be in Christ. We are only saved because Jesus provided salvation from our sins. We are only made new when we accept the gift of salvation.
It is all about being unified with Christ. That begins to happens the moment we choose to have faith.
Remember, sin is when we disobey God and break one of His laws and commandments. Salvation has to encompass bringing us into being obedient.
The New Us
“… he is a new creation …” (II Cor. 5: 17 CSB)
Once we are in Christ, we are made a new creation. Yep, only after we are aligned with Christ.
Yes, we are still in our earthly bodies. We still have our sinful nature.
But as new creations, we receive a new disposition. Our disposition is our temperamental makeup. We develop new habits and goals.
I think it will help us to compare and contrast the old, flawed us with the new us.
Worldview Made in His Image People Compared to Children of God Disciples
- All mankind have a spirit that we get when we are given breath. Disciples also have the Holy Spirit that lives within us.
- We all have an intelligence – we are curious and have abilities to reason. Our godliness accelerates those abilities.
- We all have the free will to make choices for ourselves.
- We all have moral character, but disciples are working on gaining God’s character now and will one day be perfected.
- We all have consciences, but disciples have the Holy Spirit to guide us and remind us what is holy and righteous.
- God has given us authority over animals but not over the earth.
- All of mankind is going to live for eternity. However, worldview people who are spiritually dead will live in hell; disciples who are spiritually alive will live in heaven.
- Mankind is creative, even though some may discount or diminish their talent.
- Mankind are creatures who feel, especially love. However, the worldview definition of love is not as pure as God’s definition of love.
Why Change Our Minds?
Really, our faith is in the mind. We can’t see God or call Him on the telephone to talk to Him.
We have to reason it out in our minds. Our sinful bodies have to be controlled by our changed minds.
We have to “… be transformed by the renewing of your mind …” (Romans 12: 2 NIV). This transformation will take time.
God saves us instantaneously, but this transformed mind does not happen instantaneously. We have to “… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2: 12–13 ESV). God allows us to understand what we need to so that we can get to the point where we step out in faith and believe.
Our changed minds have to be controlled by God. If our human nature control us, we disobey God’s law and displease Him. We keep God out of our lives and chose a life led by our human nature.
But It Is More than Just Our Minds
This change has to be a complete change — body, mind, and soul. We have new views and new affections. We have to have new boundaries.
We have to be totally committed to Jesus as our Savior and God as Sovereign Lord.
Knowledge isn’t enough. Jesus has to change us. We need to divest ourselves of what used to be.
God will show us what needs to be changed. No, God won’t bop us over the head — unless we need it. He will correct us through love.
The Bottom Line
Change is very important. We have to be children of God in order to be able to come into His presence.
If we are going to be in Christ, we have to be like Christ — we have to imitate Him. It is more than just believing in Him.
It is being submitted to Him.
Ooo, baby. Does that involve change!
It doesn’t happen at a flip of the switch at conversion. It is a lifetime process. We have to be working on it.
We can’t be in Christ without imitating Him. Remember what Jesus said? “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt. 7: 21 CSB).
Our heart has to be that of Jesus’. Our mind has to be His mind.
Becoming a new creation comes naturally when we are genuine about ABCDing.
Father God. We want to be changed. We no longer want to follow Satan down the paths of sin. We want Jesus to be our Savior and accept the gift of salvation. We commit to following the promptings of the Holy Spirit so that we can change from our old, flawed selves to be new creations in You. Amen.
What do you think?
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